HARBAUGH: Great, great call by Greg and that was a big third-down conversion. We'd been struggling on third downs. To get that one to pop ... and get the touchdown was great.

It was better than having to punt it back to Miami at that point.

Q: Kaepernick hadn't been running it much on the read-option until then. Is that entirely his call?

HARBAUGH: It did vary. Sometimes it's a called run where he's just going to hand it off. Sometimes he's got the option to hand it off or pull it. Or throw.

Q: What kind of spark did LaMichael James give you out there?

HARBAUGH: Yeah, I thought he was fantastic. Did a great job running the football. Thought he made positive yards that were there plus had a little extra burst through the hole. I thought it was really good, a great debut by LaMichael. Thought he acquitted himself really well.

Q: You mention getting the positive yards that were there. Was that an issue for him early this year?

HARBAUGH: LaMichael? No, this is really his debut. I think we're just seeing it for the first time. I thought it was a fantastic start for him.

Q: Why are we just seeing him now?

HARBAUGH: Yeah, that's a good question. Frank Gore is also a tremendous back, if you hadn't noticed that. Frank had another phenomenal game, the screen, the run he had, the catch-and-run was huge. We ended up making a fourth-down conversion on that. That run, I think it was about a 20-yard pick up by him.

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Some great running throughout the game. Another great effort, blocking everything that Frank does.

Q: The offense did have some struggles getting on the board for most of the game. Were you happy in general with your offense today?

HARBAUGH: These games are really hard, you know? Miami's a heckuva team. We knew that going in, that they were going to be tough to move the football on.

At some points you've got to stay patient, but we also took our shots. Thought our offense played winning football.

Q: Frank went over 1,000 yards again.

HARBAUGH: Frank is a football player. Let me reiterate that. Frank is a football player.

Q: What is the secret to his endurance?

HARBAUGH: He's got tremendous ability and great heart. Probably the thing ... wow, this guy is a real, real football player. Also how important it is, the assignments, the technique to him. He's on everything.

He goes into every one of these games, he's just so on it mentally.

Q: Why is he so durable?

HARBAUGH: (Shrugs.) What makes some guys more durable than others? (Shrugs.)

Q: What's the severity of the injury to Dobbs?

HARBAUGH: We'll see. We might've dodged a bullet. He may miss some time as well.

Q: What did you like about your defensive performance?

HARBAUGH: A lot of things. We gave up some yards, some drives. This is a good Miami offense. Got the stop when we needed it. Thought we tackled well. Got the big turnover ... on special teams.

Q: Your offense was quiet in the first half. Did Greg Roman make adjustments in the second half? Was it mostly going to the Pistol?

HARBAUGH: That was the plan going in ... I thought Greg called a great game, he always does. We had a good plan, our guys believed in the plan, and they executed it well.

Q: What happened at the end of the first half, when you barely stopped the clock in time to get the field goal?

HARBAUGH: Kaepernick did a great job throwing the ball away. We had a timeout, so we took a shot at a play, we were going to try to hit a corner route for a touchdown, see if we could hit that. Kap had thrown those very well early in the game.

But as the clock ticked down, especially when we snapped the ball, it was like 11 seconds, so had he thrown that ball and completed the ball in bounds, we wouldn't have gotten the timeout. So he did a great job of throwing the ball away, understanding where we were with the clock.

Q: Were you happy with Kaepernick's decision-making throughout the game?

HARBAUGH: I was. I thought he did a good job -- his ball security was better in the pocket. Even though he did fumble one time. But I thought that was an improvement. Thought he managed the game well. Thought he did a good job generally.

Q: What was happening on all those sacks? Was he holding on too long?

HARBAUGH: We got beat a couple times, just got beat up front. And one time for sure he got fooled by the coverage. So there's three of them that I can think of.

Q: A lot of timeouts with the play-clock running down. Were there communication issues? Was your QB having some issues there?

HARBAUGH: Well, it just seemed like it took a long time to get the play called in the huddle and then get up to the line of scrimmage. We had a shift and then a motion. We just didn't have enough time to get it all inside the 40-second play clock. So had to use the timeout.

That's not good. Not the way you want to use your timeouts.

Q: Do you see improvement in Kaepernick's play from game to game?

HARBAUGH: Again, acquitted himself very well in this game. Made some big-time throws. Ran the offense. Did a good job running the football. His reads were very good for the most part. Think he was high completion, 18 of 23. Thought he did good, acquitted himself well.

Q: Frank Gore hasn't had a 100-yard game since October. Is that a concern?

HARBAUGH: No. It's not. He's had a couple of his best games where he didn't get 100 yards for us this year. He's an amazing football player.

Q: Can you talk about Culliver's play on the back end?

HARBAUGH: Yeah, great to bring that up. He made some big-time break ups. Made a great play on the deep ball there when we really needed it. I thought all our guys really handled the important game, the big game, knowing it wasn't going to be easy but finding a way to get the win.